Comparative metabolism of xenobiotic chemicals by cytochrome P450s in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

We investigated the metabolic capabilities of C. elegans using compounds whose metabolism has been well characterised in mammalian systems. We find that similar metabolites are produced in C. elegans as in mammals but that C. elegans is deficient in CYP1-like metabolism, as has been seen in other studies. We show that CYP-34A9, CYP-34A10 and CYP-36A1 are the principal enzymes responsible for the metabolism of tolbutamide in C. elegans. These are related to the mammalian enzymes that metabolise this compound but are not the closest homologs suggesting that sequence comparison alone will not predict functional conservation among cytochrome P450s. In mammals, metabolite production from amytryptiline and dextromethorphan is dependent on specific cytochrome P450s. However, in C. elegans we did not find evidence of similar specificity: the same metabolites were produced but in small amounts by numerous cytochrome P450s. We conclude that, while some aspects of cytochrome P450 mediated metabolism in C. elegans are similar to mammals, there are differences in the production of some metabolites and in the underlying genetics of metabolism.